The Fezziwig News by Stu Jenks

The back cover of the Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair book...

The files have been uploaded to Ingram/Lightning Source. A color proof should be coming in a week or less. Now working on the audio book. I'll let you know when the trade paperback is available for purchase. Shouldn't be long now.

The PBRC is coming...

Photograph (c) 2013 Cathy Spann

News from Fezziwig Press...

Hello, y'all. Stu Jenks, owner of Fezziwig Press here...

Next week, I'll be taking down four ebook titles of Fezziwig Press from iBooks, Kindle, Nook and all ebook providers. Due to not-great sales, higher-than-I-like annual fees, and shame-on-you internet thefts, Hoop Dancing, Bozo In Love, The Shifting Light and The Fatal Figures will soon no longer be for sale as ebooks. Buy them now if you want them on your iPad. All but The Shifting Light can still be bought as hold-in-your-hand books through Fezziwig Press and other book book providers out there. Step Zero, Flame Spirals, The Transpersonal Papers and Dementia Blues will still be available as ebooks for the time being, but that may change but not right now. I'll keep you posted.

Also, in July of this year, Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair: The Deaths Of Pamela and Mary Jenks will be released at Fezziwig Press. This will only be released as a first edition analog photo-story book. No ebooks of the PBRC. More on the PBRC as we get closer to release.

And thanks as always for your support.

Love, light and luck,

Stu.

P.S. Today is my sister Pamela's birthday. She would have been 64 today. May her and my parents' souls rest easy.

"Holy, Holy, Holy: St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Cheyenne, Wyoming"

"Holy, Holy, Holy: St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Cheyenne, Wyoming" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks & St. Mark's Episcopal, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

From the desk of Wanda Hughes, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

"It appears that this is a depiction of an angel. The stained glass window is titled Holy, Holy, Holy and is in memory of Sarah E. Pierce who died August 24th, 1888. Mrs. Pierce was a popular music teacher. Her students and friends had a benefit musical to raise money for this memorial to her. It features an angel singing. The maker was Cox Sons Buckley, London & New York."

From the desk of me, Stu Jenks, Fezziwig Press, Tucson, Arizona

"I'm going to take this a step further. This angel is Sarah Pierce, the beloved music teacher. The cherubs above her head represent her students. What a wonderful way to be remembered throughout time: as a musical angel in stained glass at a frontier church. If only we all could be so lucky. And thanks to Greta Ward and a friend of hers for contacting St. Mark's to get this information. I have a call into them as well to thank them. Stunning glass. Stunning church."

 

 

Owachomo Bridge Hoop Dance

Images from last Friday's shoot at Owachomo Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. All images copyright 2013 Stu Jenks and Fezziwig Press.To purchase images rights or prints, just contact Fezziwig Press at stujenks@gmail.com P.S. I'm fine with you drag-and-dropping these low rez images onto your desktop. Just don't print them or sell them. Thanks, Stu.

It's A Mystery: The 2012 All Souls' Procession of Tucson, Arizona ebook.

A photography ebook has been produced to raise funds for this year's All Souls' Procession of Tucson, Arizona. Selected images from the All Souls' Procession (ASP) Media Circle photographers represent the bulk of the book, along with a brief foreword by me. The photographers included are David Anderson, Randy Ashley, Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli, Cathy Bruegger, Katherine Burdick, Jody Cummins, Kathleen Dreier, C. Elliott, Lisa Foote, Jessica Hately, Tim Janes, Stu Jenks, Elijah Lecomte, Karel Moonen, Brendan Murphy, Jeff Smith and Susan Tiss. The ebook is for sale at the Apple website for viewing on iPads and iPhones and at the Amazon website for their Kindles. (It'll soon be available on the Nook at Barnes and Noble, and shortly on many international platforms.) The price is $7.99. All proceeds from sales (and I do mean ALL) go to the Tucson All Souls' Procession. This project has the blessing of Many Mouths One Stomach/ASP of Tucson. Give as you can. I hope you enjoy the photography in this book. Below is my foreword and a couple of images from last year's ASP.

 

    Many in American culture today seem to believe we will never die. If we eat right, exercise and think good thoughts, we’ll live forever, and if not that, we’ll all die in our sleep, having been perfectly healthy the night before at the ripe old age of 107.
    But we all know that’s not true.
    Death is many things: The end of long suffering and illness; a sudden death due to accident, violence or overdose; a child dying far too soon; a peaceful transition from one life to the next; a quiet entering into the void; a life everlasting; or simply a great big dirt nap.
    Any, all, or none of the above.
    It’s a mystery.
    But one thing is not mysterious.
    We will all die, every single one of us, and after we have died, friends, family, and loved ones will remember us, and most will miss that we are no longer around.
    Tucson’s All Souls’ Procession Weekend is a remembrance of those who have died and a celebration of the mysteries that surround them and death. The weekend begins with an afternoon for children, The Procession Of The Little Angels on Saturday, but it’s Sunday’s All Souls’ Procession And Finale that leaves people stunned and awake, crying and smiling, somber and laughing, fearful and full of faith.
    Any, all, or none of the above.
    It’s a mystery.
   

                            Stu Jenks
                            Tucson, Arizona
                            March, 2013.

 

"The Magdalene"

"The Magdalene, (Detail Of A North Facing Stained Glass Window), St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Cheyenne, Wyoming" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks.

 

"Scorhill Stone In Thick Deep Mist"

"Scorhill Stone In Thick Deep Mist, Dartmoor, UK" & "Gidleigh Wood Folly, Dartmoor, UK" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

I read Shelagh's map. I thought I knew the way to Scorhill Circle. I did not. I got lost in Gidleigh Wood. Or rather, as Daniel Boone once said, "I've never been lost but I've been a might bewildered." That I was.

Yet sometimes when I get lost, I find wonders. I found a folly that evening, a Victorian building built for no particular use other than to employ the manor's workers. I asked around. Oddly, no one except one person knew of this folly. It seemed I wandered onto private land. Oops. One person said if was where two mad sisters lived a hundred years ago who only ate snails. The Snail Sisters. OK.

I retraced my steps and eventually found my way to the Scorhill Circle. Socked in deep mist, long exposure night photography was out for the mist coated my lens. Disappointed? Only a little. I sat on a nearby fall stone, had a smoke, and prayed in the dimming light and the thick damp mist. It was a very good walk in spite of a very large little toe blister I produced that hobbled me the rest of the trip. It was worth it.

In Tucson again. Wind blowing hard. I love the wind. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I long for mist. Thick deep mist.

Some people leave their hearts in San Francisco. I left a part of mine in Dartmoor. I may have to return to get that piece back or leave more heart there. I haven't decided yet. Leaning toward the latter.

"Paris Hoop Dance"

"Paris Hoop Dance, Rue Fabert & Rue Saint Dominique, Paris, France" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"Chagford Hoop Dance"

"Chagford Hoop Dance, Devon, United Kingdom" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks (For Terri, Howard, Tilly, Shelagh, Rex, Jason, Lock, Virginia, Steve, Jenny, & Dave)

"Forgiveness doesn't mean you absolve the other person for what they did. It means you don't want to hurt them anymore." - Levi Neill.

"Forgive everything. Well, almost everything. At least try." - Stu Jenks.

"Avebury Hoop Dance"

"Avebury Hoop Dance, United Kingdom" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"Modern Lights, Ancient Flames"

"Modern Lights, Ancient Flames: Avebury Flames Spirals, United Kingdom" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks.

"St. Mary's Whitechapel Episcopal Church, Lively, Virginia"

"St. Mary's Whitechapel Episcopal Church, Lively, Virginia" (c) 2000, 2013 Stu Jenks.

My phone conversation with the NRA

"Michael's Gun" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks (From the book Step Zero.)

The NRA just called to survey me on my views on the recent gun legislation.

"Are you sure you want to talk to me," I said, "for I'm a Southern Liberal Democrat who owns a pistol."

"Yes, we would," said the lobbyist.

He got an ear full.

From high capacity magazines to background checks to mental health issues to how money is power in Washington.

I think my favorite line of the conversation was "Senator Jeff Flake is a friend of Gabby's, but he voted against the bill. Makes me wonder how much money he gets from the NRA that made him vote that way."

Another fine line, if I do say so myself was, "If Jared Lochner had regular sized magazines, more that 1/2 of those people at the Safeway that day would have never been shot." 

I was firm but fair with the lobbyist, didn't say the word fuck once. And he was polite with me to his credit. But money is power in Washington, D.C., and everywhere else on the planet.

 

"Ancient Rockaway Beach"

"Ancient Rockaway Beach, California" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair: Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California"

"Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair: Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"The Biscuit"

"The Biscuit, Mustang Mountains, Arizona" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"Ancient Saguaro"

"Ancient Saguaro, Arizona" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair: An Installation

Pamela's Baby Rocking Chair: An Installation

Photography by Stu Jenks. Lighting by Jeff Smith.

The Arizona Biennial is coming up. I'm heading to the post office in a few to mail my submission. It's a crap shoot. Yet this year, I think I have a better chance than average, for this piece falls into the wheelhouse of Contemporary Art quite nicely, if you ask me. (Why my other work doesn't is for another time and discussion.) Wish me luck. I'll know in the First of May.

"Little Colorado River Gorge Hoop Dance"

"Little Colorado River Gorge Hoop Dance, Arizona" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"18th Annual Piano Burn, Avra Valley, Arizona"

"18th Annual Piano Burn, Avra Valley, Arizona" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

Dan is a master piano tuner (truly a magician what he did for my spinet), yet he (and others, I assume) find pianos that are just beyond all repair. They would end up in the landfill. But it just so happens a friend of Dan's has land in Avra Valley, miles from anything, so they burn these old pianos once a year.

I found it quite the moving, life-affirming experience. Circle of life and all of that.

The one thing I did say over and over again last night, was, "You just don't see this everyday."

"Stained Glass Light at Grace Cathedral"

"Stained Glass Light at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"The 28th Kaleidoscope"

"The 28th Kaleidoscope" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"Tree In The Rock"

"Tree In The Rock, Dragoon Mountains, Arizona" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

"Cradle Rock Kaleidoscope, Arizona"

"Cradle Rock Kaleidoscope, Arizona" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

Three images from Council Rocks...

From top to bottom: "Lizard Man", "Boo Says The Ancient Mogollon Indian Mortar", and "Council Rocks Kaleidoscope". All (c) Stu Jenks, 2013

Peter and Chartreuse's Kaleidoscopes

"Peter's Kaleidoscope" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

 

 

"Chartreuse's Kaleidoscope" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

 

"Adams Street Rooftop Kaleidoscope"

"Adams Street Rooftop Kaleidoscope" (c) 2013 Stu Jenks

Images from the Saum family Bible...

Images from the Saum family Bible: (c) 1882 Holman's Edition and 2013 Stu Jenks

(From top to bottom: "Mary Magdalene at St. John" [My title, not Holman's], "Jesus Healing The Lunatic", "Arrival Of The Good Sameritan At The Inn", "Return Of The Prodigal Son", and "Daniel Interpretating The Handwriting On The Wall".

"...cloudless as a summer day..."

"May your life be as cloudless as a summer day. Your friend, Maud Wright. January 24th, 1884."

I inherited the Saum family Bible after my sister and mother died 18 months ago. I haven't given it much thought, but in the writing of my new novel, Step Zero 2.0, I have good and bad Christians and I need a good King James Bible for research. So off to the musty storage locker I went.

What I found was an beautiful ancient book with the deaths, births and marriages of my mother's side of the family, from the 1860's to a couple decades ago. I had no idea those records were still in the book. I thought those pages had been missing for years. Instead, they were nestled between the Old and New Testament. I filled in the death dates that have occurred in the last few years that I knew: an uncle, an aunt, a father, a mother, a sister. Some questions were answered about my ancestors yet more questions arose, like the twins by Aunt Nan who died in 1941 after having lived only one day. No one's ever talked about those baby's deaths.

The Bible seemed to have been purchased by the great great grand parents after the birth of their second child in 1884. Thumbing through this huge tome I found the above note. I have no idea who Maud Wright was, but my best guess is she was a good friend of the Saums.

"May your life be as cloudless as a summer day," she wrote to her friends. I'm struck not only by the beautiful handwriting but mostly the lovely sentiment.

So did Earl and Nannie Saum have a cloudless life? Doubtful, even though they were wealthy landownders in Northern Virginia. They had sicknesses and successes, failures and weaknesses, births and deaths, most of the fine details lost in Time.

But the kind thought of a friend wishing them calm and peace lives on, in my hands, in my family bible, 129 years later, almost to the day.

I can only hope that a century from now, someone finds a handwritten note from me, wishing a friend love and light. I best get started.